1. Technical Field
This disclosure generally relates to mobile data networks and more specifically to a method and apparatus for secure boot of a data breakout appliance with multiple subsystems at the edge of a mobile data network.
2. Background Art
Mobile phones have evolved into “smart phones” that allow a user not only to make a call, but also to access data, such as e-mails, the internet, etc. Mobile phone networks have evolved as well to provide the data services that new mobile devices require. For example, 3G networks cover most of the United States, and allow users high-speed wireless data access on their mobile devices. In addition, phones are not the only devices that can access mobile data networks. Many mobile phone companies provide equipment and services that allow a subscriber to plug a mobile access card into a Universal Serial Bus (USB) port on a laptop computer, and provide wireless internet to the laptop computer through the mobile data network. As time marches on, the amount of data served on mobile data networks will continue to rise exponentially.
Mobile data networks include very expensive hardware and software, so upgrading the capability of existing networks is not an easy thing to do. It is not economically feasible for a mobile network provider to simply replace all older equipment with new equipment due to the expense of replacing the equipment. For example, the next generation wireless network in the United States is the 4G network. Many mobile data network providers are still struggling to get their entire system upgraded to provide 3G data services. Immediately upgrading to 4G equipment is not an economically viable option for most mobile data network providers. In many locations, portions of the mobile data network are connected together by point to point microwave links. These microwave links have limited bandwidth. To significantly boost the throughput of these links requires the microwave links to be replaced with fiber optic cable but this option is very costly.
To facilitate additional capacity on mobile networks, a new “edge server” or “breakout system” is being developed by International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). The breakout system or edge server is part of as a Mobile Internet Optimization Platform (MIOP). The MIOP component corresponding to each basestation is referred to as a MIOP@NodeB. The MIOP@NodeB offloads data streams such as internet data streams for at the edge processing while passing through the voice streams to the backend of the network. As used herein, the term “breakout system” in general means a system that connects between two computer systems on a data network and passes on some of the data on the data network between the two systems while breaking out for local processing other data streams normally flowing between the two computer systems on the data network. A breakout system could broadly be construed as a network processing device or mechanism capable of routing all or part of the network traffic on a network data path between two other nodes through itself.